Siblings

Two business partners who misused money intended for building new homes in Baltimore County were sentenced Friday to eight years in prison, with five of those years suspended, the state attorney general's office said. Walter Osborne Ely Jr., 46, and sister Kimberly Zahrey, 44, were also ordered to pay $188,768 to 19 victims after they get out. The state is pursuing a separate civil case against the siblings to try to get more money back. The state said the two, operating as JAE Developers, took payments as large as $50,000 from clients and spent the money on expenses with no connection to the buyers' homes.

Black- and copper-colored beads lay around a puddle of blood in a Northwest Baltimore alley where police said a transgender woman was killed early Wednesday in a crime that bore similarities to the slaying of another transgender woman last month. Baltimore police are investigating whether the death of Mia Henderson, 26, is connected to the killing of Kandy, whose body was found June 3 in a field in Northeast Baltimore. Both were found during the early morning, and police have no suspects in either case.

The students: Alan, 12, and Alexis, 10, Drayton Schools: Alan attends Clarksville Middle School. Alexis attends Clarksville Elementary School. Special achievement: Alan and Alexis won first place in the age 12 group of the Maryland State Piano Teachers Duet Competition held in March at the University of Maryland, College Park. It takes two: "Playing a duet with my sister was a fun experience," Alan says. "Not a lot of people play with their siblings. We got to practice whenever we wanted.

A Baltimore councilman plans to push a measure to rename a street after the 8-year-old boy who died after trying to save his siblings from a fire in the family's rowhouse. Decerio Coley threw his 4-year-old sister from a window into the arms of neighbors below when the fire spread through the house early Monday morning. While neighbors shouted at the boy to jump, too, Decerio instead went back in to save his brother, Sean McCullough, 7. The 7-year-old was killed, while Decerio was critically injured and taken off life support the next day. The younger sister, however, survived unharmed.

By Donna Erickson and Donna Erickson,King Features Syndicate | April 11, 1992

Educators in elementary schools across the country are developing ways to promote interaction between students in upper grades and students in lower grades. In these partner programs, the children interact in a variety of ways, from doing good deeds for each other and attending assemblies together to encouraging and teaching one another. Teachers are finding that when big kids teach little kids, the cooperative projects benefit both the older child, who gets a boost of self-esteem as a role model, and the younger one, who enjoys and is motivated by the special relationship.

What should parents do when one child seems to have little affection for his brother? My 8-year-old thinks everything revolves around him. He doesn't treat his 5-year-old brother as he should. When he inflicts pain on his younger brother, he has no remorse. What can we do?$ -- Linda Lucard, Fort Worth, Texas The first step may be as easy as allowing the older child to vent his anger.While some anger naturally occurs in every relationship, parents frequently don't want to face the fact that kids need to blow off steam, just as they do. Experts in sibling relations say it's crucial.

SCRUBBED UP AND SLICKED down for a holiday photo, many brothers and sisters look alike. But you don't have to be a parent to know that looks are deceiving; when it comes to personalities, passions and talents, siblings can be as different as a mixed pod of sweet and black-eyed peas.Why is that? You might guess inborn predilections, and you would be partly right: Each brother and sister gets a different mix of genes from Mom and Dad, so it makes sense that whatever power nature wields over personality traits such as optimism or anxiousness shapes each sibling a little differently.

On a rainy Saturday, William Engle is happy to be indoors, playing parachute with other children. His peers lift the silk parachute into the air and William, 5, races underneath, swapping spots with another boy. But William and his playmates have gathered for more than rainy-day fun. They are participants in Sibshops, a nationwide program for siblings of special-needs children. The workshops combine games with opportunities to talk about the joys and frustrations of having a disabled brother or sister.

Caitlin Kinney has a hidden advantage - and it just might come in handy as the blond ballerina from Annapolis competes this week on the highly rated Fox reality show, So You Think You Can Dance? The 21-year-old Kinney's secret weapon isn't her stunning good looks, her story of perseverance over adversity (after a potentially career-ending injury, her entire right hip was rebuilt 18 months ago), or even the rock-solid technical skills she polished as a student at the Baltimore School for the Arts.

When Jenny Chuasiriporn won her third straight Bobby Bowers Memorial Junior golf title last week, she had a familiar caddy -- her brother Joey."It definitely helps me play better to have him there," said Jenny, 16, who won the final match 2 and 1 Thursday at the 19th annual Bowers tournament in Springfield, Va."You always like to have someone who knows how you play," said Joey, who became available to caddy after losing his second match of the tournament on the final hole.Jenny and Joey, who turns 17 next week, probably spend more time together than most teen-age siblings -- much of it on the Hunt Valley Golf Club course where they are members.

The Baltimore County Board of Education needs to restore sibling priority for kindergarten admission to magnet elementary schools. While the intentions of revoking sibling priority may have been good, the impact on Baltimore County families and on the school system itself will be overwhelmingly negative. The previous Baltimore County Public Schools superintendent revoked sibling priority for kindergarten applications to elementary magnet schools in order to make access to magnet schools more equitable for all families.

Each week, The Baltimore Sun will publish a Q&A with a college lacrosse player to get you better acquainted with his or her team. Today's guest is Mount St. Mary's attacker Hannah Gutcher, who is tied for third on the team in scoring with 10 goals and three assists and hopes to help the Mountaineers win their last three games to qualify for the Northeast Conference tournament. The Hampstead resident and Mount de Sales graduate followed all of her siblings, Emily, Jamie and twin brother Austin, to the Mount after spending a year at Towson.

In a city steeped in the lore of the game, the Doyles are greenhorns, a first-generation lacrosse family. But the Towson brood is catching up fast. Four Doyle siblings have earned college lacrosse scholarships, and two - Jack and Conor - were named All-Metro Player of the Year at Gilman. Both now play for No. 9 Notre Dame (6-4), which hosts No. 6 Maryland (9-2) on Saturday. Egging them on in the stands will be their sister Caroline, a star at Notre Dame Prep who'll join her brothers in South Bend, Ind., next year; brother Casey, a seventh-grader at Gilman who also plays lacrosse; and parents Kevin and Grace Doyle, neither one of whom acknowledged the game until their kids did. "To us, lacrosse was always just another sport," Grace Doyle said.

Like any high school senior star, Boys' Latin attackman Shack Stanwick has typical aspirations for his final lacrosse season. He wants to win the coveted Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association A Conference championship that has eluded the Lakers during his years with them. He's excited about the talent returning from a team that fell one game short of a perfect season last year, and he's quick to mention the hard work that needs to be...

Loyola University freshman Alison Breitenbach and her 14-year-old brother recently received a surprise from a kind stranger. Alison, 19, and her brother, Jack, a freshman in high school, had a long chat over a late breakfast at Miss Shirley's on Cold Spring Lane on Feb. 21. "We were just catching up," said Alison. "I hadn't seen my brother since winter break. It's kind of weird for me not to be there while he's in high school. " The siblings' mother, Laura Breitenbach, had a meeting in Washington and had dropped Jack off to spend the night in Alison's dorm.

Loyola University freshman Alison Breitenbach and her 14-year-old brother, Jack, received a surprise last week from a kind stranger. Alison, 19, and her brother, a freshman in high school, had a long chat over a late breakfast at Miss Shirley's on Cold Spring Lane Friday. "We were just catching up," said Alison. "I hadn't seen my brother since winter break. It's kind of weird for me not to be there while he's in high school. " The siblings' mother, Laura Breitenbach, had a meeting in Washington, and had dropped Jack off to spend the night in Alison's dorm.

For the past 18 months, Sanjay Stone has served as a navigator aboard the USS Gonzalez, a guided missile destroyer whose home port is Norfolk, Va. But the former Columbia resident happened to be in training at Navy Information Operations Command in San Diego when the USS Carl Vinson returned to nearby Coronado from a seven-month deployment that included the at-sea burial of Osama bin Laden. Just another day in the life of a sailor and Naval Academy graduate? Yes and no. Sanjay, 27, has aspired to a Navy career since he was 7 years old and listened raptly to his paternal grandfather's stories of his days as a submariner in World War II. The lieutenant has already carried out some choice assignments around the world and has signed on for two more tours of duty.

PHILADELPHIA -- How appropriate that the NCAA East Regional has come to the City of Brotherly Love. Maybe not since those famous jump-shooters, Cain and Abel -- or was it the Van Arsdales? -- have two siblings on opposing teams shared the same court.But it should happen tonight, when junior point guard Bobby Hurley of Duke, who rarely comes out, and freshman point guard Danny Hurley of Seton Hall, who rarely gets in, will face each other for the first time since they left Jersey City."We definitely played a lot, and we fought a lot," Bobby Hurley recalled earlier this week.

By Kevin Rector and Meredith Cohn, The Baltimore Sun | December 31, 2013

When John Davis' kidney began failing in January, his girlfriend's mother decided to donate one of her kidneys to help save his life. That the two weren't actually a "match" - meaning Davis' body would never accept her kidney - didn't matter. In a groundbreaking program at Johns Hopkins Hospital that is as much about nationwide networking as it is medical innovation, kidney transplants are being arranged not through isolated pairings of patient and donor, but through longer and longer chains of individuals who don't even know each other.

Tourists of the Inner Harbor: You don't need your eyes checked. That young blond girl in the blue dress you saw in triplicate? Elizabeth, Adrianna and Laurel Kamosa, 18-year-olds from St. Mary's County. That teenage boy wearing the "Triplets in Charm City" T-shirt was, as his uniform might suggest, in fact three brothers, not one guy who gets around fast. Dozens of sets of triplets drew stares and lots of questions downtown Saturday as part of an annual triplet convention. The 22-year-old event came to Baltimore for the first time, giving multiples and their parents from across the country a chance to share stories and lessons and bond over their shared genetic luck.